Replying to Customer Feedback

Modified on: Thu, Sep 20, 2018

Here we take a look at why and how you should reply to customer feedback.

After a customer has left a review you have the option to reply to their feedback. Feefo advises that all negative feedback is responded to as this gives you a chance to provide the customer with an explanation or an apology for their unsatisfactory experience/product. Without a reply, the customer is likely to remember their negative experience for a long time and possibly never buy from your business again; they may even discourage others from doing so too. Depending on the problem, a reply can reduce the disappointment and can sometimes even result in the customer re-rating their experience as being positive.

All interactions between you and the customer are public. Prospective customers take a keen interest in how a merchant reacts to the unexpected as nothing defines a brand better than the way in which it reacts when things go wrong. After you’ve replied, optionally, the customer can again provide further feedback, and if desired, change their previous rating.

Search engines consider conversations between customers and merchants as content that their visitors will be interested in, and this includes both positive and negative interactions. For this reason, Feefo recommends that positive feedback is also responded to, giving search engines a list of both positive and negative content, with all interactions helping to improve search engine page rankings.

Our main advice when replying to customer feedback is:

Keep your responses short (aim at Twitter length).

If something has gone wrong, acknowledge and apologise.

If possible, explain what has been done to prevent a recurrence.

Refer to calls or correspondence/fixes that have been made (don't refer to planned calls as they’re not credible).

Address the customer by their name unless they've chosen to remain anonymous.

Remember that you are replying to the customer but you should expect hundreds of other people to read what you’ve written. 75% of the reason for posting a reply is so ‘other people’ can see what you’ve done.

Avoid ‘business speak’ such as ‘in regards to’ or ‘myself/yourself’. If you are sorry, say so: don’t use ‘I do apologise’.

If you are replying to product feedback and the item generally attracts positive feedback, we suggest that you mention this. For example, you could say that their feedback is of concern since this product is currently rated as 98% positive.

If you need to share feedback with a colleague or pass it to Feefo to remove damaging comments, use the ‘Forward Feedback' to another Feefo user.